HubChallenge FAILURE and Making Money With Hubpages
85Make Money with HubChallenge
The infamous hubchallenge of 2009 and I signed up for 100 hubs in 30 days - and I published 62 - including this one! I FAILED and I am over the moon - why because I am achieving my goals and making money and I have learned a lot about myself and making money online with hubpages thanks to this challenge.
I thought I couldn't make serious money at hubpages - a few hundred dollars a month sure - but no more. Then Court Tuttle came along and started talking about making $1000's - I wanted to believe - but I was cynical, and I was wrong.
So This What I Learned About HubPages and Making Money Online
HubMob HubChallenge Hubs On A Newsworthy Topic
Many people said they didn't have 100 ideas for a hubs. This is rubbish! This is a trick I learned before I learned SEO - and its a standard professional writers trick. If say you are a travel writer and you travel to Bali - how many pieces do you write to sell to finance your trip? One? I don't think so - you write variations for many different markets and different publications: "Bali for Beginners" for first-time visitors "Bali for Seniors" for older visitors. "Top 10 Luxurious Hideaways in Bali" for the upmarket crowd, "Best Budget Digs in Kuta Beach" - you get the idea. You use one set of basic research and get multiple value out of it - just like every newspaper, magazine and TV station does.
If you are on hubpage you then link all these separate story hubs together. You link them using a link capsule or a within the text - it doesn't matter - how just link them! From an SEO point of view this is very good because related contend is linked, from a viewer point of view they get to read more of your stuff.
Bonus points if you can write on the week's hubmob topic you get a free backlink from the main hubmob hub and the chance to have your hub showing in the RSS feeds of the other contestants in that week's hubmob.
Choose One Money Making Approach Per A Hub
Chose One Money Making Approach Per A Hub
Adsense: Target high paying keywords - I mean $20 plus use the Adwords tool to find them. Choose long tail (2 or more words) keyword phrases. Choose phrases with less competition. I have an exact formula that I use - the one taught by Court Tuttle at the Keyword Academy - I wrote a review see the hub to the left. The think I have the best Adsense Placement on Hubpages worked out. Check out my Adsense Placement hub to see it in action (this hub is not optimized for Adsense).
Amazon/ eBay Sales: If you are targetting Amazon or eBay sales I'd say check out Mark's approach with this hub which makes him $200/month - he must be doing something right. I'm not my affiliate sales are all over the place.
HubChallenge - the Reaction Against
- When Hub Weeds stifle my Hubpatch
It was about a week ago when Ryan came bounding onto the forums like an excited puppy who had just found his master's slipper under the bed.
Some People Are Here to Write and Have an Audience
And I am not one of them. I think CindyVine wrote the best hub about the reaction to those who see hubpages as primarily a place to showcase their writing skills, and were therefore shocked at the concept of writing 100 hubs in 30 days for the hubchallenge. Fair enough say I and I don't think I annoyed many of my fans - because only 11 of my hubchallenge hubs were published under this persona. I initially chose to set up other hubpage personas for anonymity - but it had the side effect of not annoying my fans - I am happy about that.
Failure is a Step To Making Money Online!
Participation in the Forums Doesn't Significantly Improve Your Hubscore
My other hubpage ID's don't participate in the forums - they have respectable hubscores of around 90 and have stayed there after they published 5 or more hubs. I think you get a bigger boost for commenting on other hubs - but its probably not worth it in pure time management terms.
Plan to Succeed - But Be Flexible
I fully intended to publish 100 hubs but about 30 hubs in I got disillusioned with the figures I was making compared to what Court was publishing on his blog and what Ben was was making in his 200 hubs in 30 days make money with hubpages experiment. I sulked a bit over that. Then I got mad - how dare these newcomers make more money online with hubpages when I was supposed to know something about hubpages in the make money online circles? Then I changed track. Instead on focusing on hubs that supported my existing sites or which may turn out to be new niches which were somewhat of interest to me.
I decided to do exactly what I was being taught at The Keyword Academy - that included adding backlinks to my hubs. Logistically I found that easier to do as I went rather than going back to my topic weeks later and trying to remember my content. That slowed me down a bit.
If You Really Want To Make Money Online
- How To Make Real Money on the Internet
The KeyWord Academy is the only step-by-step reasonably priced membership site which will really take a beginner from nothing to actually making thousands a month online.
Passive Income Online: My Blog
- Why Do Most Travel Bloggers Suck At Video? And How To Fake A Good Travel Video
OK – so I’m being fighting the video monster for the last few days – with some success – and quite a steep learning curve – but at least now I can create videos! - 5 days ago
- Authority Site Building – May Update
OK I’m going to be posting a regular update on the progress of my travel authority site. - 2 weeks ago
- Pick Myself Up, Dust Myself Off, Start All Over Again
Thank you. - 3 weeks ago
- Google Bullshit aka Penguin Debacle on the 24 April 2012
Due to the fun of time zones mostly when its the 24th April in the US its the 25th April in New Zealand. - 4 weeks ago
- Using Catalyst Theme To Build An Authority Site
The original title of this site, when it was on blogger, was building an online income one website at a time. - 5 weeks ago
Keyword Research is King
But what really caused me to fail the hubchallenge was that I was spending far more time doing keyword research than writing hubs. That's where the money is - not in the clever writing, the pretty pictures or anything else, or even the great backlink strategy you have. The money is in the keyword research. I am number one for "vacation packing tips" and "Internet marketing hubpages". The Internet marketing hub was deliberately done because I wanted to outrank a crappy ebook which someone sells telling you how to make money on hubpages. The last laugh is on me though -that guy never made any money from his e-book - there is hardly any traffic for the search term. If I had checked that first I would have known it!
Its Very, Very Important For Me To Succeed In Making Money Online.
I chose to do this full-time - my partner supports me - its been over 18 months now - I still make a pathetic income compared to the A$6000 I could make working in my profession. But I hate working in companies - my mate Allyn over at Bloggerillustrated got it totally right in this video post about corporate arrogance- I don't like being beholden to someone else for my living. I don't like living the lie of pretence that most professional jobs require. I don't like wearing clothes I wouldn't normally wear, and dealing with people I wouldn't normally waste two seconds on - and I really, really can't be bothered dealing with idiots who think I owe the loyalty cause they are my boss!
So if the price I have to pay is to stop writing about vacation packing tips and start writing about finance and credit cards - so be it - its a pretty good option from where I'm sitting, in my pjs!
Oh and you are still reading this and wondering why I am so happy about my "failure" - I usually average $80-90 /month Adsense from Hubpages - I have earned nearly that in the first 10 days of this month...
And if you want to know the detail then: check out The KeyWord Academy!
CommentsLoading...
Lis, I am still baffled by keyword research. I don't have the money to do much of anything at The Keyword Academy and I know that I'm getting frustrated.
I do *really* well for a HP newcomer. I'm averaging just over $13 a month. I might scrape that in June... Numbers are falling but I've fallen away from HP too due to some personal frustrations.
I don't "need" this income, but darnit, I want it. Is there some big secret about how to choose a niche or am I missing the point? You have to have an idea to plug into the Adwords tool, right? Or not?
This is what I get for being sick and up past my bedtime...
This is EX--CELL-ent Lissie. (I am so honored to have you as my first fan)
I failed at this too, but succeeded in making a modest gain in pocket change, and also learned a lot. I am not putting in enough time and effort to make it a full time job, and I never intended that.
You are certainly an inspiration and a well of knowledge for those that do want to make a living from this. You have given a lot of people a chance to help themselves.
I really respect and appreciate all of the iinspiration you have shared. Thanks.
You bet wandererh - its all about giving Google what people are searching for ... the ultimate customer is always right business! Thanks for commenting!
Okay Lissie. This was a great read, and I'm inspired. Thanks for sharing your ideas and experiences with this.
I'm really glad to hear about your success in the HubChallenge. I'm fairly new to this, but I took the 30/30 challenge and actually wrote 36. I have seen great results as well. My daily pageviews have almost tripled.
Keyword research is pretty much where it's at, that and getting solid links. You can outsource content and easy link building, but for the good keywords and the best links, you've pretty got to take it on yourself to get things done.
I've been a little slow with the Hub building myself (was never in for the challenge, given that I was scuba diving in Thailand near the beginning of it), but I'm starting to pick up steam here so we'll see what lessons I learn and how much money I can make!
Awesome Hub Lissie, I made my 30 for the challenge. Love the idea of milking your topic with different angles, great idea.
t
What are you lot all doing out of bed this late!
@EM I made next to nothing in the first 6 months at HP. You need to decide whether you are targetting products or Adsense - Im doing Adsense at the moment cause that's what KWA emphasises and i've always done better with it than affiliates anyways. For Adsense I am totally over 5c clicks - you only get about 20% of what the CPC in adwords says - if that CPC is less than $8 I am no longer interested! Look at Courts topics. I like the idea of finding niches first on HP - its after all free -then if the topic is working out on HP I will build my own site - and I have some nice backlinks which also make me cash.
Frustration - about once a month or so for me at the moment - I kinda of expect it now LOL
@Rochelle - thanks- the title was irony - directed to those who were worried they failed - the only ones who failed are the ones who didn't try because they thought they would fail... if you understand me! It also works as linkbait quite well :-)
Thanks everyone for our comments- we are crossing in our posting! Frieda I certainly have experience - I will have to write the ebook one day!
@KCC lets face it if you don't publish it you definitly can't make money so anything you get out there is better than nothing - at the end of the day they provide nice links.
@DWilson completely agree its the key skill and the hardest to learn. SCUBA diving - must have been bummer - I bet you are really sorry to have missed the start fo the hubchallenge for a bit of diving!
Lizzie, great hub. I didn't get nearly as far as you, but I will continue onto the goal I have set.
Lissie..Gosh..is this what has to be done?' Choose long tail (2 or more words) keyword phrases. Choose phrases with less competition.'I did not know..thanks for this great hub. :)
I've completed 30 in 30, and I've got my next 85 individual hub ideas already lined up. So when this competition ends my output won't be letting up any, I'll still be averaging one per day. Though they might not all be on my primary account.
@trekkie just keep on going - it doens't matter when or if you finish. Lyla - yes you did I can tell from your hubtitles!
Darkside - I will keep lissie for the stuff promoting my MMO stuff and odd random things I like to write about. I would like to have a couple more profile pages with PR4 as well - always useful!
good hub lissie....I am just plodding right along in terms of hubs but I don't pay as close attention to adsense CPC...maybe I should, lol.
Lissie, I am learning so much from you! I hadn't even thought about different profile pages with page rank as being useful. I wrote 50 hubs in May and was thrilled at the increase in income. So I'm writing another 50 in June.
Lissie, congrats on your failure :) Nice to see that even if you didn't make your target number, you still made a significant impact on your Adsense earnings from the hubs that you did get done.
Thanks for introducing me to Court and Grizz's blogs by the way. I have been jumping back and forth all night around Grizz's various blogs reading his tips. After seeing how amazingly well Court's experiment here went, I keep thinking that I can do even better with Adsense than I have been. If I sign up for the Keyword Academy, I'll use your link!
Thanks for giving us your guidance so generously. I am torn now as to whether to enjoy the writing or to try and make money at it. Perhaps I'll manage both!
Lissie superb hub........ i have learned many things from your hubs.......
Excellent and very informative...Thanks for sharing!
Great hub thanks for this! I got to 57 as you know and had to stop. might publish a few more last minute today though. Life just got in the way and with 2 trips I only had about 18 days!
My adsense has gone right up too so nice!
Hi Lis,
I failed too, although I wasn't really going for any goals having been gradually adding to my total over time without the hype of yet another "challenge" to change the haphazard way I work.
I have a few different personas that built up their hub numbers nicely as well during this, so it's an interesting experiment whatever happens.
Hi Lis,
Although I didn't get half the 100 hubs what I did do has really helped me to get more comfortable writing. I knew I wouldn't get 100 in a month and so I didn't even try (self-defeating?) but then about half way through I read Ben's post about getting 30 hubs in one week and I decided to try that. I set a goal of 4-5 per day and I made it. Doing that much quick writing really got my mind working to put words to paper, err, keyboard. I am not a professional writer so I have been slow to get up to speed but this really helped. I can now go on and on writing about things that I don't know too much about and just keep going and writing so that I get in the zone and type and type and type and then I get started and while I am started I don't get stopped so I just keep writing and writing and I find I don't really say too much but sometimes I do and I don't know which is which because I get writing so fast and putting words up on the screen because it is all about word count you know and how many words are on the page the number of words that fill the page you know I just get started and then it just flows and flows and flows but I do have problems with punctuation you know especially the little dotty thing at the end of the sentence they seem to get in my way so sometimes I just leave them out and write and write and write and...
Sorry, sometimes when I get started I can't get stopped.
Thanks for all the help and inspiration you provide.
Lissie: Great to hear that it went so well for you. The hub challenge started at almost exactly the same time that I found out about the keyword academy, and I toyed with the idea of participating, but I got so caught up in the learning process, that I didn't have a chance. I'll definitely be setting a personal challenge for myself though, and your hubs will be a great source of information and inspiration to help me on my way.. Keep it up.
Oh, and agrande? You made me lol :-)
@Julie-Ann you just published 11 hubs in the last couple of hours - so I don't think you did too bad.
@honestway - yes a couple more profiles with nice PR would be handy!
@agrande LMAO but you failed - not enough repetition of the "making money on Hubpages" keywords - you really could have incorporated that a few more times ... I know what you mean though I was taught to write to the point never use 5 words when 3 would do : Grizz has taught me never to use 5 words when 50 words will add so many more useful long-tails to the mix!
@jazzboo - fair enough - you can really do your head in trying too many thing at the same time - just stick with the KWA program for a couple fo months and see where you get to.
sorry you failed but at least you tried....great advice love this hub... will pass it along...R
raguett - I didn't fail - I made more moeny and its sustainable income too - thats better than an arbitary number of hubs!
Well done Lissie, great hub and as soon as I can get adsense when I leave china, hoefully then Ican make some money as well!
Very interesting... I think I'm going to have to do some more keyword research, instead of just writing what I'm interested in... At the moment, I'm not making much of anything! However, I used to write on insurance and mortgages - and I made lots then... ;-)
Your hubs just give so much information, this one included. Because of you I am beginning to understand a lot of things about adsense, adwords, and how to make money. I will study this material, and get on with making money online
Lissie, I don't know if you understand what my dilemma is. Not the first time I've struggled to articulate it.
Given I've been around 2 months I'm happy with my earnings. I do, however, want them to go UPWARDS. No point in continuing to slave away six hours a hub just to make a few cents a click. Most of the clicks I get these days are doing better than 5c :) A couple have done me more than $1 but those have been exceptionally rare.
I'm watching in Analytics which hubs are earning. This never fails to surprise me! My second-best earner is Venomous Snakes of North America! Whoah Nelly! LOL
More what I'm concerned about is figuring out what keywords to research in the first place. I have things that interest me and tend to target those. I'm working off my own knowledge base. But I'm beginning to wonder if that's not the wrong way to look at it: do I need to branch out and hit subjects I don't know about but which are likely to produce income? And if so, how do I *find* those topics?
I've tried the billboards approach -- it's all hotels. Not sure that hotel reviews are going to do a whole lot for me!
Thank you for another great Hub. Your hubs are always just what I need to read at the time for extra motivation. Keep up the great work! I know we all appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us.
Everyday: Lissie gives you the answer to your question in the very last line of this hub ;-)
Excellent read Lissie! I was an early drop out on the challenge and learned a lot about over estimating my willingness to write quickly instead of my usual leisurely pace. I think you are dead on in terms of keyword research. I balance my hubs by doing about half with keyword research in mind (the reason for so many on certain subjects that I have some knowledge of). The others are just there because I want to do them.
In the year I've been here, I've made more from clients who liked what they read on hubpages and solicited me than directly. I currently average about $1200 a month indirectly thanks to hubpages if that knowledge helps anyone.
Another great information-filled hub. Thanks, Lissie.
I've not paid much attention to keyword research, and just have been writing on my own interests so far, and not focused on making money.
I did the challenge, and wrote 30 for the 30 days, so that was a big step for me. Now, I'll have to re-read your hubs that I've bookmarked, and try to make a little cash.
@Monique - mortgages and insuances are an excellent place to focus your keyword research!
@EM - the money is where people are desparate to find an answer - and as I said in the hub and to Monique anything financial is a good place to start. The point is that the writing does nothing for me either - and as soon as I saw the cash coming in I started outsourcing it - its a means to an end not the end in itself - my blog is called "Passive Income" cause I am way too lazy to keep on with this working stuff!
@Jerilee yes hubpages is a fantastic place to build an online portfolio to launch a freelance career - well done!
@nolimits - keyword research is everything if you are looking for income
@badco - *sigh* johnny called me young - I am forever your fan! (though I will sulk if you change the avatar!)
Thanks everyone for your comments
Great hub Lissie!
And I can totally relate to the whole working for a dull company in a real job as they say it is totally pointless in terms of wages and the time spent getting there and messing around in someone elses company....I am going full time online next month and also applying for a business funding package, because I can't take working part time at an agency any longer to pay the bills.
62 hubpages is a good amount for the hubchallenge..well done!!...I managed 43 which still isn't a failure because I have realised that I now know where I am headed and plus I did do some keyword research and have identified lots of tiny art niches that I can easily take over, but it requires me to make some ebooks, but that's no obstacle...because I know how to get there!!
wayne - you can write and draw - thats at least one up on most of us! Good luck with the fulltime gig - but as you say once you know what you plan is the luck comes along naturally!
excellent hub Lissie, thanks, keepin up the motivation.....
Thanks for all the inside info. I will try and use it wisely :)
GLad to know about your earnings, Lissie. I never thought about backlinks for Hubs because I guess I didn't think the urls were like normal web sites . . . oh, never mind.
I'm making pennies a day on my 46 Hubs. Most of my traffic, about 2/3, comes from search engines. So i would expect to make more. But I'll keep writing and choosing strong niche topics.
My biggest earning Hub is Top Tier gasoline. After nearly a year, it suddenly started getting all kinds of Google hits.
I've thought about asking for input on why I'm not making at least $1 per day with my Hubs.
Don your hubs look good - possibly too good. Remember if you engage your reader too much or supply the solution they will have no reason to check out an ad. If your niches are good (and they look like they could be) then you can only have 2 problems: lack of traffic or a poor click thru rate.
If you lack traffic you aren't high enough up on google - or there is no traffic for that particular term. If you need to climb google still - build more backlinks.
If you clr rate sucks (less than 1%) - then you need to revamp your hubs to be focus your readers attention appropriately
You are right about the ideas. I think I have about 200 ideas for hubs and it is still growing. My problem is that I'm so new to all this that I haven't master the money portion of it.
I am with Jazz on this one, the hubbub started when I started KWA and my concentration was split, but I caught the hub bug and now and plugging away at it! Very slowly lol
Hi Lissie,
This is a great Hub, which I'm going to give a mention to over at my Write and Earn a Living blog.
I couldn't agree with your sentiments more! Many of us are doing this to grow our passive and our monthly income. Sometimes, we forget that it takes time and persistance. Over time, though, the efforts pay off.
There's no greater satisfaction than working for yourself. It takes vision: being able to see the long-term gain over the short-term "failures."
Excellent read Lissie, I'm just starting out with hubs and this read will add a lot to my productivity.
I'm new here and totally excited about the hub challenges...I have so much to learn! I landed on hubpages in order to promote an external affiliate web site. But who knows, maybe I'll concentrate on this. You are an inspiration. I need to figure out how to make money online so that my husband and I can move to Colorado. I know we can do it and I love reading the stories of others who are making money online!
Very interesting hub! I followed Court's challenge on his blog with interest - I didn't join in as I'm much too lazy and long-winded to write huge numbers of hubs in a short space of time, but it was inspiring to see what people were achieving. And I think 62 hubs in 30 days is very impressive!
Your hubs are so inspiring and helpful; I will try to put some of your ideas into practice starting with the back linking
I have quite a few hubs about my specialty but I'm not writing them to try and make money... I wonder if it's actually worth it to put that much effort into it? Can you honestly make anything worthwhile?
You want to make this a full time job, I think you will need to put a lot more work into it than just hubpages adwords money.
Hi lissie finally found your hubpages which is awesome im very encourage..btw how do you find the time to do all your blogs and hubs?
anyway a quick questions how do I know if I got my hubs index by goog;e and does it normally take more than 4 days I read some people are getting index in 34 hours and some people think because of the hub challedge it has cause google to index hubs less quickly? any knowlesge or wisdom on this?
Its always varied - I have hubs which are over 12 months old that never indexed and new ones that indexed within hours - its all about the content - and whether google needs more information on blue widgets or whether everyone is writing about blue widgets this month!
Wow......congrats. I can't seem to get that keyword thing down. I'm trying. I don't have any extra $$ to spend,but I do have Mark and Court Keyword Crash Course and Keyword Academy Coaching. I keep filling my head with all different information. BUT, now that you seem to have done so well with Mark & Court, I am going to focus on those 2 things, along with the core videos that they offer with the coaching. It really must be good. Like I said, I read Pot Pie Girl's stuff, Bum Marketing, Wealthy Affiliate, as well as some others, but at the end of it all, my head is just spinning and I can't figure out how to apply ANY of what I have read. Nor has any of it actually soaked in. So tomorrow, I have a plan. Keyword Keyword Keyword......thanks. I know one of these days it will click. I have been online, trying with this stuff now for only 2 months. I believe I have read over and over that you just need to stick with it. I'm not going anywhere. Hit my head against that brick wall over and over, ice it, get back to the computer, and do it all over again!!!
Thanks
Only 2 months? It took me about 10 to come to the same conclusion - start making some money with one method and its amazing how focussed you become on it LOl Good luck - not that it sounds like you will need it!
Hello Lissie,thanks for detailed knowledge..it is going to take a very long time for me to understand and imbibe this knowledge..great work..all the best
very helpful contents
thanks
Thanks for your candid story! I really enjoyed it, especially the part about checking Adsense. Thanks so much!!
We are only occasional Hubbers - at time of writing we have 42 published hubs.
What we have learned from Hub pages, and helpful Hubbers has helped us a lot. You are in our little list of leading Helpful Hubbers!
Keyword Research is boring, but we find that the value of many of our clicks has gone up. Yay!
Now all we need is more clicks. Better get writing...
Great article! Once I join a hubchallenge, I'm going to come back and read your suggestions again.
I don't know why I haven't read your hubs sooner. I may be making something rather than almost nothing.
I am less then a month here. Still have to learn a lot.
Thank you so much for sharing. The information provided here it's really useful. It's great there are people who do a lot to help others.
Thanks for the hub. I'm new to Hubpages. I'd like to use them to provide information, but also to make money so I'm hitting all the "make money on hubpages" hubs for tips! Thanks for the heads up on forums and hubscores-I suspected that. I'd like to participate, but I'd like to have hubs that are getting enough traffic that I don't have to log in each day without fail to keep my scores high enough.
Sweet article.
A headline stating YOU being a failure at anything definitely caught my attention. *grin*
haha, that's why mummy always says dont compare with others! Anyway, 62 hubs is still better than nothing.
A great Hub. Very interesting and useful. I wish I could start making some decent money on the internet - and I wish you well with your project. Here's to a fortune.....
great stuff, wow, 62 in 100 days is awesome. I'll bookmark this one!
Very helpful Hub. I appreciate all of the great advice!
Thanks for your candid story! I really enjoyed it, especially the part about checking Adsense. Thanks so much!!
Damn, I know this is old and I'm late to the party but big thumbs up for this!
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wandererh Level 2 Commenter 2 years ago
Yay, I'm the first one here. :) And I think it was you who got me looking into keyword research. And I do believe that that is where the money is.